2004-09-08-Seattle

I had several free days until choir practice Sunday night, so we decided to head down to Seattle, and maybe do some camping somewhere. Having just been away for the first half of her mom's vacation, Cyn was hesitant to take off with us for the other half. Naturally, we invited her mom along, and to our surprise, she agreed to try camping for her first time.

2004-09-08

We left Vancouver mid-afternoon, and arrived at Mike's doorsteps around dinner time. Not that it was our dinner time or anything; we sat around for a few hours before going off foraging for food.

Cyn catapulting things at Mike

Researching camping options

Inflating the air mattress

Mike testing mattress

2004-09-09

Mike was a poor victim of mean friends who decided that he should be less of a wuss and try camping. So after a slow start, we piled into the car, hit a Fred Meyer for some food, and drove towards Mount Rainier. It was a cloudy day, and there was not much to see except for the nearer scenery of towns, farms, and forests.

Sleepyhead

Self serve checkout

Figuring it out

Mike trying to take control

We headed to the Sunrise area on the east side of the mountain because it was in the rainshadow, but of course, the campground was also more elevated and we had us a Mikesicle.

Blue bags

Sunrise-White River Area Visitor Services Guide

Stevens Canyon Road Visitor Services Guide

National Park Service

We had a couple of hours of daylight after we picked out our site, so we wandered up a trail. We only hiked about half an hour, but we were rewarded with our first view of a glacier on Mount Rainier, visible just under the clouds.

Mushroom	Other side of the valley	Waterfall	Looking at the waterfall
Mike on bridge	Crossing	Mike on bench	Overcast
Slide hazard	Water	Deb and Mike	Jo
Deb, Mike, Cyn	Peek of glacier	Crossing back	We were on the Emmons Moraine Trail.
Dinner time	Holding his security blanket	Mike in bed

There was an ampitheatre, from where we lounged after dinner, looking at the partially clouded sky before going to sleep.

2004-09-10

Bundled Mike	Tents	Deb, Cyn, glacier, wispy cloud	Cold water
Mike	Uprooted	Trail crossing	Campsite cavein

The skies cleared up the next day. We spent a bit of time down in the river valley beside the campground before driving up to Sunrise, stopping at the viewpoint on the way.

UFO disguised as cloud	No weapons	Thai salute winddown	Lake
Jo	Mike and Deb looking at Baker	Cyn telephotoing	Car

We went for a stroll on the trails around Sunrise.

Cyn

Glacier

To Frozen Lake

Multilingual notice

These stitch together, but I'll leave them as they are for now.

Ice cream	Sticky	Mike risking his life	Safe perch
André and Debra	Slide	Mike, intrepid explorer	Which way to go?
Steep	Cloudy ice cream	What's Mike pointing at?	Cyn climbing
"Uh, how do I get down?"	Domestic water supply	Deb, Cyn, Mike	Frozen Lake viewpoint that-a-way
Mike making a new friend	Pika	At our destination	Frozen Lake
Pretty sad lake	Cyn's butt	We followed the Wonderland Trail back.	Cyn, sign photographer extraodinare

We were quite hungry by the time we got to Frozen Lake, and the package of peanut snacks was starting to lose its appeal as it was the only thing we've eaten in the past couple of hours. The choice that faced us was whether to return via the same route, or try our luck with different scenery that was hopefully of a similar length. Our decision to try the Wonderland Trail route back was wise for several reasons: we spotted a couple of marmots and a deer, the route was even shorter thanks to a service road shortcut, and there was a wheelbarrel so Deb and Mike could take wheelbarrel rides.

Clouding over

Perched pika

After a mean of burgers and clam chowder at the cafeteria at Sunrise, we set off towards Paradise on the other side of the mountain.

Mike, bench

Cyn the tunnel crosser

Slide path across the highway

Valley

What we saw of Paradise was remarkably unlike its name. It was quite overcast when we arrived; not long afterwards, the only view we had were of the parking lot with a backdrop of mountains shrouded in the mist. Mike showed us where he and Wing had gone on a previous visit on a trail map posted at a trailhead, and by the time we left afterwards, it was raining quite hard.

A brief sighting of mountains

Department of the what??

Raining

Twiggy, yet colourful

With little reason to stick around, we headed back to Seattle, and sought food in the Fremont area. Mike couldn't find the noodle place that he had in mind, so we ended up at Jal Thai instead. Unfortunately, one page of the menu was too blurry to be useful.

Coconut ice cream, not mango!

No spoon! Where's the trap??

2004-09-11

Despite our putting him through his second near death experience, Mike graciously showed us around Seattle on our last full day. We went to Gas Works Park first.

Bug eyed Mike	Mike catching the wind	Downtown Seattle across Lake Union	Sailboat and Nob Hill
Mmmm, berries	National Ocean Survey	Mike on the wrong side of the barrier	Father and son fishing
Old industry	Pink	Deb inspecting the sketchy gangplank	Cyn venturing
Deb found a way around	Do not enter the water	Discoloured sandals from toxic mud	Naughty Cyn!
Happy industrial relic	This girl was trying to climb across the gap...	... and smiled for a photo.

There was some sort of a company picnic or something going on, and they were catered by this trailer that was essentially a giant BBQ on wheels.

BBQ	Meat inside

Next, we headed to the Pike Place Market for some munchies and the obligatory fish tossing.

Freemont Bridge	Perpetually out of order	Deep friers	Mike, Deb, Jo
Protein skimming system	Liquid aminos, Best foot program ever!	Cherry tasting	South African sausage
Giant avocados	Caution low flying fish	Blurry flying fish

On our way to Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe, we came across a pirate store.

Surrender the booty	The beatings will continue until morale improves!	Meow!	Specializing in mayhem & madness
One eye in crotch

The next tourist stop was REI. There was a bit of "It's around here somewhere!" but we eventually found it.

Located at Thomas and Yale	Store gates	Mountain bike crossing	Magic snowboard
Very cozy tents	Erm... Why?!?	Times from around the world in front of climbing wall

After they closed, we went back to Mike's. Haoyong came over, and led us to downtown Kirkland where we had Mexican for dinner. Dinner was the turning point where even Jo join in for the Mike mockage.

Deb	Haoyong	Jo	Mike will lead people to the promise land. If he can find it.
Lai-Thai, real authentic Thai food

We went and hung out in Haoyong's new apartment for a while before heading back to Mike's.

Fancy plastic oven mitt

Cheap wine expensive goblet

Comfy Cyn

Bundle of Mike

2004-09-12

We packed up our stuff and headed into Kirkland again for lunch. Mike drove too so that we could depart from Kirkland without having to return to Redmond to drop Mike off. We ate at the Asian vegetarian place that Haoyong pointed out the night before.

Silent Fart	Cafe Happy Asian Veg Food	Illegal chemical castration	Mike and Deb
Strange bend	All weepy like	Hand, feet, bum prints	White duck?
Getting trampled	Terrorised	Say "aaahhh"	Breakwater ship

There was just enough time to pick up some bubble tea at Mak's in Yaohan Centre before dropping Jo off and still get to choir on time. Hanging out at Michael's later in the evening, we discovered that we had stolen his armrest and back support.